US tries saving Taliban talks after Karzai objects
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Hopes dimmed for talks aimed at ending the Afghan war when an angry President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday suspended security negotiations with the U.S. and scuttled a peace delegation to the Taliban, sending American officials scrambling to preserve the possibility of dialogue with the militants....

Militants storm UN compound in Somalia; 20 killed
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Seven al-Qaida-linked militants on a suicide mission attacked the U.N. compound Wednesday with a truck bomb and then poured inside, killing at least 13 people before dying in the assault....

Obama urges 'bold' nuclear cuts in Berlin speech
BERLIN (AP) -- Summoning the harsh history of this once-divided city, President Barack Obama on Wednesday cautioned the U.S. and Europe against "complacency" brought on by peace, pledging to cut America's deployed nuclear weapons by one-third if Cold War foe Russia does the same....

China's Xi harks back to Mao in party 'cleanup'
BEIJING (AP) -- China's new leader Xi Jinping is commanding wayward Communist Party cadres to purify themselves of corruption, and he's summed it up in a pithy slogan as Mao Zedong might have done: Look in the mirror, take a bath....

New MERS virus spreads easily, deadlier than SARS
LONDON (AP) -- A mysterious new respiratory virus that originated in the Middle East spreads easily between people and appears more deadly than SARS, doctors reported Wednesday after investigating the biggest outbreak in Saudi Arabia....

Syrian exiles get taste of home: Beloved ice cream
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- For Syrians, no visit to Damascus' Old City is complete without a stop at a more than century-old ice cream parlor in its main souq where you can watch them make their distinctive desert by pounding it into shape with giant wooden mallets, then enjoy a bowl of it sprinkled with pistachios....

Few options for Brazil leader in face of protests
SAO PAULO (AP) -- With massive protests by middle-class Brazilians demanding wholesale government reforms, people all over this continent-sized country have reached a verdict on the streets and online: "The giant has awakened."...

Social network gaffes plague Japanese politicians
TOKYO (AP) -- On the Internet, no one can save you from yourself. That is a lesson many Japanese politicians have learned recently in painful, awkward and at times costly fashion....

Italian icons find no respite from tax man
MILAN (AP) -- Sophia Loren wore green silk and sunglasses for her date with the taxman, Luciano Pavarotti a suit and sneakers. Diego Maradona gave up his diamond stud earring to pay off a tax debt....

AP PHOTOS: 3 little liligers cavort at Russian zoo
The zoo in Novosibirsk, Russia's third-largest city, is home to a unique animal - the liliger. That's a big cat breed where the father is a lion and the mother is a lion-tiger hybrid, called a liger....